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In a rare feat, a young male mountain lion made it out of the Santa Monica Mountains recently, crossing Highway 101 near Thousand Oaks.

Dubbed P-55, the 2-year-old has been tracked since April as a part of a long-term National Park Service study.

Researchers believe he crossed the highway near the Conejo Grade sometime between midnight and 2 a.m. July 30.

And, that's good news for the small mountain lion population living in Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Lions here face some steep odds.

Boxed in by busy highways and urban development, their inability to get out of or into the area has led to inbreeding, low genetic diversity and mountain lions killing each other.

Researchers with the National Park Service have studied the population for 15 years, monitoring their behavior and genetics.

CLOSE

This is an archive video of P-55, one of dozens of mountain lions tracked by the National Park Service as part of a long-term study. P-55 has been found dead.

Over that time, they documented only four lions, including P-55, that crossed the 101 successfully.

Their research also found 17 mountain lions killed on roads and highways during that time.

Typically, lions come up to the edge of a freeway and then turn around, said Seth Riley, a wildlife ecologist with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

"So it’s really interesting to see another lion get across," he said, in a statement released Monday.

"As a whole, however, lions face significant challenges moving around the fragmented landscape in and around the Santa Monica Mountains, especially across larger roads and through intensely developed areas."

Two other mountain lions, siblings P-32 and P-33, crossed the 101 at different times in early 2015. Both were born in the Santa Monica Mountains and were heading north.

Only one lion, P-12, has been identified crossing into the Santa Monica Mountains from the north.